Indian news round-up

The fast bowlers in the Indian team for the upcoming one-day triseries have all been told by Indian coach John Wright to undergo a special training stint with legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee at the Chennai-based MRF Pace foundation. Senior quick Javagal Srinath has though been allowed to stay back at Bangalore.

"Venkatesh Prasad, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Harvinder Singh will undergo a special stint under the watchful eyes of (Australian pace guru) Dennis Lillee at Chennai from September 14-17," BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele told cricketnext.com.

"Wright had advised us on this matter at the selection committee meeting (to pick the squad at Mumbai on September 7), but at that time Lillee's scheduled arrival had not been finalised," he added.

Prasad, Khan, Nehra and Sodhi have all been named in the 15-man squad for South Africa. Harvinder is reportedly one among the five stand-bys who could get a call-up if one of the main players is found to be unfit.

It must be remembered that a column on appeared on CricInfo, dated 4 September 2001, that advocated this very move.

The Mumbai High Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by Gayatri Arts, a city-based company, challenging the BCCI's decision to award clothing sponsorship for international matches for the next three years to the International Management Group (IMG). Gayathri Arts had contended that the contract be scrapped as they had made the highest bid of Rs 90 crore. But Justices Ajit Shah and Sharad Bobde dismissed the appeal as they found that no contract was concluded between BCCI and the company.

Dr MK Bhargawa of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association has been named the manager of the India team for South Africa, according to a report in cricketnext.com. "The president has decided that Dr Bhargawa will be the manager," BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele told the site. Dr Bhargawa had managed the team when India visited Australia in 1999-2000.

"Yes, there was some talk that Shivlal Yadav (former Test off spinner and national selector and current secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association) may be sent as manager, but finally the president has chosen Dr Bhargawa", Lele added.

K Kaushik, a 19-year-old medium pacer, playing in the Moin-Ud-Dowlah tournament lost an eye after being hit by a full-blooded drive on Tuesday.

Kaushik, appearing for Districts XI on Tuesday, was bowling to Sudhir Wankhede of the Railways when the latter stepped out and smashed a drive straight back at him. It hit Kaushik on his left eye after he failed to get out of harm's way. He was immediately shifted to a hospital where doctors operated upon him. They could not however confirm whether the youngster would regain his vision.